"I've been a member of the union for 20 years, and it's important for the other guys to know, for my reputation in this union, that it never happened — and it didn't happen."

Rodriguez received thunderous boos from the Boston crowd before lining into a double play in his first at-bat against the Red Sox on Friday. But Yankees manager Joe Girardi claimed that none of the attention surrounding Rodriguez has affected the Yankees' play.

"I really believe that this group is good at shutting out distractions and understands what it has to do," Girardi said. "Since this Biogenesis thing has come about, there's been something every once in a while that comes out, that the players are asked about, but I think they're good at moving on and going out and doing their work."

Despite the news that Rodriguez may have helped drag a teammate's name into Major League Baseball's investigation of the scandal, several of his fellow Yankees expressed support for the embattled slugger.

"When you put a uniform on, you're a family," said Vernon Wells. "You have to be around each other for 200 days out of the year. This is our extended family. When it comes to family, when it comes to people that do things wrong in your family, yeah, you may not like it. You might be upset with them for a good period of time, but they're still family.

"He has nothing to explain to me. This isn't my story; this isn't even a Yankees story. This is an Alex Rodriguez story. If he feels the need to address the team, then great. If he doesn't, great."

"Alex is denying it, so that's what I'm going with," said Curtis Granderson. "A teammate is a teammate, and I trust my teammates."

In Alex Rodriguez's first at-bat in an Aug. 18 game in Boston, he was hit a pitch from the Red Sox's Ryan Dempster. Both benches were warned and Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected after arguing that Dempster should have been tossed out of the game.
Jared Wickerham, Getty Images

Alex Rodriguez hits his 648th career home run, his first of the season. The RBI moves him past Stan Musial for fifth on the all-time career RBI list with 1,951.
William Perlman, The (Newark) Star-Ledger vis USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, as part of the Charleston RiverDogs, grounds into a double play during a rehab game against the Rome Braves at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park.
Jeff Blake, USA TODAY Sports

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The Yankees have played well of late, winning five of their last seven. But practically everyone in the clubhouse seems to realize they will inevitably hear more details of and face more questions about Rodriguez's involvement in the Biogenesis scandal and investigation.

"It's going to get worse every day," Rodriguez said. "The next seven weeks are going to be a very, very bumpy road."

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Wells said. "When you have an investigation that's going on for months, there's potential to be so many layers to it. There's going to be things that are said and things that are written, and some will be true and some won't be true."

Amid the latest controversy, Rodriguez and his teammates began a three-game series in Boston with an opportunity to gain ground on the first-place Red Sox, who led the Yankees by 8½ games entering play Friday.

"For us, our playoffs start (Friday)," Rodriguez said to a dense scrum of media in the dugout before the game. "This is a pivotal series for us against a very good team."